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Synopsis“A story about seven very different peoplewho go looking for love, and end up gettingmore than they bargained for.”Fast Romance tells the story of seven very different people who attend a speed date and end upgetting more than they bargained for. Some want to be there, some need to be there and some wouldrather be anywhere else but there.After another disastrous first date, NADINE CATALANO’S sisters’ put plan B into action and book herin with a local speed dating service. Nadine quickly enlists the help of her two best friends, FIONABENTON, who desperately lacks the confidence to enter the dating scene, and LORNA KERR, whois a month from being married. Across Glasgow, GORDON ‘GORDY’ BOYD, signs up for the speeddate just because Nadine is going. Unfortunately his boss, KENNY CAIRNS, is railroaded by Gordy’sworkmates into going along with him. ANDREW SPENCER, a police officer on a mission, has to go whileELLIOT HENDRY signs up hoping to get inspiration for his “great” romantic novel.When the seven paths cross, sparks don’t fly the way Gordy hoped - but each and every one of theirlives are changed forever.Gordy watches on while his ideal girl, Nadine, has a blossoming relationship with Elliot. His boss, Kenny,tries desperately to attract the attentions of Fiona without actually revealing his true identity. Lornalearns to ‘live a little’ thanks to Spence but as the two begin to fall for each other, and her fiancé returnsto the scene, trouble is on the horizon.Fast Romance will take you on the rollercoaster journey with each of the characters. You’ll laugh, you’llcry, you’ll gasp but, most of all, you’ll be amazed at how a life can be changed in just three minutes. Fast Romance 1 Press Kit

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“It was fantastic. A feel good Glasgow movie!”- audience quoteThe CharactersGordy has fallen for a certain someone. Thing is, that certain someone has no idea who he is.Nadine is desperate for a man. Her family are desperate for her to get a man. She’s beautiful, funny andcan even give you extra sprinkles on your latte, but will she ever find her perfect match?Kenny is in his 40’s, divorced, estranged from his kids and living with his mum. His life isn’t looking toorosy, but pressured into accompanying Gordy to the speed date, could his life change forever?Fiona is in a boring job, with nothing but a photocopier to keep her company and a workplace bully tomake her life hell. She’s got to start somewhere – but is love closer than she thinks?Lorna has it all. House, job, a good man she’s about to marry and a dream honeymoon in Dubai. Afterattending the speed date to keep Nadine company, her life takes an unexpected turn and she finallylearns what it means to “live a little”.Elliot has always seen himself as a free spirit but never thinks beyond today. Is Nadine his perfect matchor just a “goddess that inspires his creativity”?Spence, a police officer, attends the speed date for a very different reason. When his investigationleads him to Lorna, he discovers that love could be his undoing. Fast Romance 2 Press Kit

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Director’s StatementI’ve been asked several times whilst working on Fast Romance why someone with a background infilm and television fight work would choose romantic comedy as the genre for my first feature film.Throughout the 1980s Scotland was known for its great film comedies. Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero andRestless Natives made their mark on the world stage and helped mould my current sensibilities andhumour. It seemed to me that those times should be revisited today. In recent years Scotland hasbecome known as a producer of dark gritty films, fuelled by drugs and violence. As a fight directorI’ve worked on and enjoyed being part of these productions, but for my own project I fancied aretrospective on the style we came to love 30 years ago.Fast Romance has been described as Sex and the City with a twist of Gregory’s Girl. This is sowonderful to hear as it’s almost exactly what I set out to make. I tried to capture the honest charmof the Gregory’s Girl era of film making, whilst making it something that modern audiences can enjoyand engage with. If the same audience that goes to see Sex in the City or About a Boy or Notting Hillgoes to see Fast Romance, I’ll be more than happy. It’s also a snapshot of my favourite city, Glasgowas it is right now, and I hope it will age as well as the classics mentioned above. It is worth mentioningthat Colin Tully, who wrote the music for Gregory’s Girl, is the guest saxophonist on our soundtrack.The intention was always to shoot the film on a micro budget, and the associated cost implicationsof course had an influence on many of the decisions that were made along the way. With this in mindwe set about to make the world, its characters and plots as rich as possible so that any small costrelated decisions that came about during the process would not compromise the whole.Casting was primary to the film, and we approached a central cast of up and coming talent fromScotland led by William Ruane (Gordy) who had been in my internet series The Rage with DerekMunn (Kenny) whom I worked with on the Scottish soap River City for several years. Besides theseven main characters we went all out to attract a diamond supporting cast including several actorsfrom the films that I have mentioned above. Rab Buchanan was the lead in That Sinking Feeling andhad played Andy in Gregory’s Girl, Vincent Friell took the lead in Restless Natives in 1985 andDave Anderson played the dad in Gregory’s Girl. There are several other well-known faces in there,including Barbara Rafferty of Rab C Nesbitt and The Last King of Scotland fame. The world of the filmis greatly enriched by their presence.I wanted the film to feel real, but on occasion to leave reality behind and just tip into an “otherworldly strangeness” which is fun and tongue in cheek. Several characters in the film are certainlyheightened, but not entirely outwith reality. I feel it’s a danger to “play” the comedy, so whereappropriate I have steered away from this. Fast Romance is not intended to be a “screwball”comedy. It is however fun, romantic and honest.The look and feel of the film again had to be rooted in reality. We tried to use locations that wereeveryday but were unusual or interesting in some way, e.g. Our bridge location is the one usedin Gregory’s Girl. We used limited moving camera, partly for cost reasons of course, and shot ascript which plays in chronological order. In addition we wanted it to appear stylish and reflect thecosmopolitan world that is contemporary Glasgow.Tech SpecsThe film was shot on a JVC HDY-251e in 720p High Definition Video (16:9) at 50 frames per second.Running time inclusive of credits is 93 minutes. It currently (January 2011) has a stereo mix. The filmscreens from a graded 1080p digital print which is available in Bluray, Hdcam and Digibeta formats.Format: HDVScreening Format: HD CAM, BLU RAY, DIGI BETAAspect Ratio: 16:9Duration: 93 minutes Fast Romance 3 Press Kit

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Script DevelopmentCARTER: I’d been working mainly as a freelance fight director and as an actor for some yearsbut had also been developing devised theatre work with Scottish Youth Theatre that had provedimmensely popular with audiences. I figured that the same techniques I’d used when devising theatrewould work equally well for film, so I work shopped an idea based on the theme “All about love” witha group of actor friends. We had some fun that week, chucked about some ideas, messed aboutwith some characters and I moulded those concepts into a rough story. We’d found the subject ofspeed dating quite interesting so it was provisionally titled that.That was in January of 2006 but it wasn’t until October of 2008 that I met the future writing team,James McCreadie and Debbie May, who were friends of fellow Ickleflix director Ross Gerry. Jameswas looking for a project and I thought he had the get up and go to run with an idea and actuallymake it work. The decision to make a feature length romcom happened at that point as it was bythen a fairly strong idea in my head. Fast Romance was set in modern day Glasgow where we arebased, and although featuring quite a large cast didn’t have anything too expensive in its make up.It would appeal to a three quadrant audience and be a shift from the norm in terms of Scottishfilm making. Certainly a selling point for investors was that it didn’t have any drugs, suicides ormurders in it.On Fast Romance we sought a more experienced producer to join us. Amanda Verlaque aproducer whom James MacCreadie and I had worked with closely on River City had been lookingfor independent film projects and really liked the script. Amanda brought a wealth of productionexperience to the table and helped focus our efforts. Together we worked closely with the writers toget Fast Romance up and running.Production DiaryCARTER: We went to draft 11 on the script, which was our shooting draft. Specific pre production,as well as casting and other significant prep had to be a rolling process. Something I had learnedfrom directing very large theatre projects was to break seemingly impossible tasks into a sum oftheir parts so with that in mind we came up with a plan to shoot only on weekends throughout thesummer of 2009 allowing breathing room between locations and to some extent plotlines. A substructure of the schedule was to shoot out main plotlines in three blocks. This worked well and westuck to our schedule completing on time in September. We also allowed time for pickups/re-shootswhich took place in March 2010.AMANDA: Filming weekends and some evenings whilst casting continuously and raising moneyrequired nerves of steel. The task ahead was huge but if we prepped we could pull it off. Prior toshooting we had raised just under half the budget and this allowed us to begin principal photography.It required an amazing level of commitment from everyone as cast and crew were effectively signingaway every weekend of their summer. Luckily we found a crew who entered whole-heartedly into thespirit of Fast Romance and this above all else is what sustained us throughout the shoot. Folk hadday jobs Monday to Friday while a very small team of us prepped during the week for the upcomingweekend. There were hairy moments where we were locking down locations late in the week, whichadded pressure but we always got there. Weekend shooting had other positives too as we had timeto really consider who we wanted for our remaining cast and for our cameos. Fast Romance 4 Press Kit

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Cast Biographies William Ruane Award winning British director Ken Loach gave William his breakthrough in the exceptionally successful film Sweet Sixteen, playing the leading role of Pinball. Ruane has gone on to work with Loach in two other films, Tickets and in the Cannes Festival Palme d’Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley. His TV credits include the dramas Kitchen, working opposite Eddie Izzard, Sea of Souls, Rebus, Taggart and the long running weekly BBC drama River City. Jo Freer Jo trained at the RSAMD, graduating in 2001. Other television and film credits include: Fast Empty (BBC); Wee Gems: Mighty Midge (BBC); Campus (C4); Taggart: Cause to Kill (STV); The Secret Life of Arthur Ransome (BBC); Emmerdale (ITV); and Artery (STV), as well as the short films Grief and The Mirror. Theatre credits include: House of Bernarda Alba, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, Our Teacher’s a Troll (all for National Theatre of Scotland); The Marymass Massacre (Random Accomplice); Liar (Glasgow Citizens’ TC); Too Late for Logic (Royal Lyceum for the EIF). Lawrence Crawford Lawrence trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. His television credits include Garrow’s Law, Crow Road and Screen Two ‘Nervous Energy’. He starred in the award winning short film ‘ Taxi’ directed by Neil Thompson. His theatre credits include ‘The Big Picnic’,’Burdalane’ and ‘ The Trick is to keep breathing’. Derek Munn In a professional career spanning 20 years Derek has written, performed, directed and produced in almost every aspect of the entertainment industry. With a history of amateur performance throughout his formative years, Derek entered the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1989, emerging three years later with a BA in dramatic studies. Derek’s on screen credits include Dr Finlay’s Casebook, Monarch of the Glen, Sea of souls and River City. Lynne McKelvey Lynne trained at Langside College, Glasgow. Theatre credits include Peter Pan (macrobert) Snow White (Citizens’ Theatre), Hello Rabbie (3rd Degree Burns), Scrooge (Citizens’ Theatre), Refuge (Eastwood Theatre), The Twits (Citizens’ Theatre), Merman (Birds of Paradise), The BFG (Citizens’ Theatre). Lynne also toured Comedy of Errors for a year in Germany with White Horse Theatre Company, and enjoyed working with Scottish Youth Theatre on the Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil. Lesley Hart Lesley trained at RSAMD. Theatre includes The Silver Darlings, Sunset Song (Aberdeen Performing Arts), The Cherry Orchard (Royal Lyceum), Autobahn (Theatre Jezebel / Tron), The Dirt Under the Carpet (Oran Mor / Paines Plough), Long Time Dead, Strawberries in January (Paines Plough / Traverse) Tiny Dynamite (Paines Plough / Frantic Assembly) Elizabeth Gordon Quinn, Home – Aberdeen (NTS), I Was a Beautiful Day, Shimmer, Outlying Islands, Among Unbroken Hearts, Shetland Saga (Traverse) Nightingale and Chase, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Film and TV includes Casualty and Invisible Kids (BBC1). Michael Howell Michael trained in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Since graduating in 2000 he has worked extensively in theatre with credits including Nick Piazza in ‘Fame’ (UK National Tour), ‘Parking Lot in Pittsburgh’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Into The Woods’ (Byre Theatre), the ‘Ivor Novello 50th Anniversary Concert’ (Theatre Royal), ’One Touch of Venus’ (Covent Garden) and’ McGregor’ (Bridewell Theatre). He has appeared in numerous television commercials and provided voice-overs for many more.Fast Romance 5 Press Kit

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Cameo BiographiesVincent FriellVincent was born and educated in Glasgow. He has worked for most Scottish Theatre companiesincluding: 7.84, Tag, Wildcat, Traverse, Tron, Citizens, Perth Rep, Byre Theatre, Communicado,Borderline, Arches.Television includes: Taggart, Still Game, Rab C. Nesbit, and Toughlove.Films include: Restless Natives, Trainspotting, Missing, and The Little Bird.Dave AndersonFilm credits include: Solid Air, Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero, Heavenly Pursuits, Post Mortem andOrphans. On television Dave is best known for his long running BBC sit-com City Lights. He has alsomade appearances on Still Game, Taggart, Rab C. Nesbit, Monarch of the Glen and many othershows. Dave Anderson has worked as an actor, musician and musical director for numerous Scottishtheatre companies including 7:84 and Wildcat, with whom he toured music theatre round the UK,Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. His songs for The Steamie are being performed(somewhere) right now! He has collaborated on several one-man shows with David MacLennanincluding 47, Barking and Stardust and two of Dave’s previous shows A Walk in the Park and Tir nanOg, were performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007 to critical acclaim, with Tir na nOg winning theMTM: UK Dress Circle Award for Best New Musical.Barbara RaffertyBarbara’s television credits include Rab C Nesbitt, Your Cheatin’ Heart, River City, Rockface, MurderRooms, Tinseltown , The Young Person’s Guide to Becoming a Rock Star, Taggart, High Road, TuttiFrutti, Dr. Finlay, Garrow’s Law, Sea of Souls, Doctors and Hamish Macbeth.Barbara’s film work includes The Wicker Man, Blood Red Roses, Slab Boys, Billy Bongo LeavesHome, Women Talking Dirty, The Last King of Scotland and Coming Home.Rab BuchananBorn in Glasgow Rab was a member of the Glasgow youth theatre where he met Bill Forsyth. Hewent on to appear in Bill’s first three films, Ronnie in “That Sinking feeling”, Andy in “Gregory’s Girl”and Trevor in “Comfort and Joy”. After a few years of theatre and TV, Rab concentrated on thetechnical aspects of the industry. Being asked to appear in a Cameo in “Fast Romance” was a greathonour and an absolute blast, getting to deliver the best four lines in the history of Cinema.Juliet CadzowJuliet’s film career includes parts in “Heavenly Pursuits”, “The Duna Bull”, “The Big Man”, “TheWicker Man” “Wonderland” [silver medal Venice Film festival] “Thicker Than Water”[BAFTAnominated best actress] “The Stone of Destiny” “Fast Romance” and “The Last Word” with EwanMcGregor. - TV includes “Wedding Belles”, “Glasgow Kiss”, “Taggart” “Looking after JoJo”, “TheStonehouse Affair”, “Playing for Real”, “The Houseman’s Tale” “Scotch and Wry”, “Rab C. Nesbitt”,“Still Game” John Byrne’s “Arena” “Cardiac Arrest”, “Life Support” “Hamish MacBeth”, “Dr. Finlay“Casualty”, “Coronation Street”, “The Bill” and Edie McCredie in the award winning children’s TVseries “Balamory”. Juliet also played in many of BBC Scotland’s early costume dramas such as BelMoorhouse in “Wax Fruit” “Doom Castle” “The Camerons” and “The Flight of the Heron”.Tom UrieFrom “Chewin’ the Fat” to “Still Game”, from “Only an Excuse” to “River City”, Tom has barely lefta Scottish TV show unturned. A skilled character actor, voice artist and musician, Tom has mostrecently worked on the golden globe nominated movie “ The Illusionist,” and provided a star turn inJohn Landis’s “Burke and Hare”. His debut album “Sweet Home Balmaha” is now available on iTunes.Bryan LarkinBryan has appeared in numerous British and American productions in recent times with leading rolesin ‘Running in Traffic’ alongside Kenneth Cranham, also Gill in ‘Miles Away’, the critically acclaimed1930’s caper and ‘The Red Machine’. The two-time BAFTA winning actor and producer received theTrailblazer Award from Sir Sean Connery and is recognized as one of the top ten rising stars of thefuture. He will next appear in Neil Mackay’s, ‘Skeleton Lake’ for Epic Pictures. Fast Romance 6 Press Kit

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Production BiographiesDirector – Carter FergusonCarter has worked professionally in theatre, film and television since 1995. In the past 15 years hehas directed over 400 fight sequences in his role as a fight director working alongside James Nesbitt,Minnie Driver, Kevin McKidd, Jason Isaacs and many more. He appeared as an actor in nearly 100episodes of BBC Scotland’s River City, and has designed nearly 70 theatre and film productions. In2008 Carter made the decision to begin shifting his career towards directing and producing films.Producer - Amanda VerlaqueAmanda has worked as a script reader, script editor, storyliner and producer for BBC NI and BBCScotland as well as Waddell Media, Magma Films, TG4 and Stirling Film and Television. Her creditsinclude the multi-award winning and BAFTA nominated BBC One drama Holy Cross, written by TerryCafolla and she was part of the Scottish BAFTA nominated River City team. Before joining the industryin 1999, she was an arts and entertainment journalist and has also co-edited Lurgan Champagne andOther Tales: Real-life Stories from Northern Ireland.Director of Photography – Ross GerryRoss has been working with Ickleflix since its inception, providing Technical expertise and a keenvisual sense based on over 25 years of working with lights and cameras. His experience is inbringing to life beautiful Vistas and intimate scenes from live concerts to corporate events, brandingpromotions for large companies to lighting major political leaders and some of the most importantsporting events and announcements in Scotland. In the field of live music he has faced the challengesof lighting and filming orchestras and some of the biggest bands at “T in the Park”, which is one ofthe UK’s largest music festivals.Composers – Stephen Wright, Nigel Dunn & Gordon DougallMoonglass Music is a company comprising of 3 highly talented composers who specialise in creatingevocative and distinctive soundtracks for film, television and theatre. Stephen Wright, Nigel Dunnand Gordon Dougall each have extensive experience in a wide variety of different musical stylesenabling them to provide an extraordinarily eclectic range of original works. Our current projectsinclude the feature film “Fast Romance”, the animated TV series “Bonga” and Jigsaw Productionsforthcoming feature film.Writers – James McCreadie & Debbie MayJames McCreadie wrote his first script, Willy’s Dream, in 2000. It sold, unsolicited, to BBC Scotland.On the back of this, James was invited to join the writing team for ‘River City’ where he spent 51/2 years. During this time he also wrote the short drama, ‘Work’ which was part of BBC2 ‘BlackCab’ season and ‘Baby Austin’ which was short-listed out of 200 applicants for Scottish Screen’sprestigious New Found Land competition. In 2004 James started writing alongside his wife, Debbie,and penned the action thriller ‘The 8th Order’ which has had serious interest from Hollywood and is,at present, having a trailer drawn for it by a well known Scottish comic book artist. At the moment,James and Debbie continue to work together on several film projects as well as television showssuch as ‘Doctors’ and the Irish soap ‘Fair City’. Fast Romance 7 Press Kit

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Music Credits “Fast Romance” “Love You Always” “2 Page Spread” Written By Written By Written By Steven Blood J.Mcewan/ S.Mcewan/ Giles/ Courtney/ Smith/ Performed By A.Mcgonigle Marshall Steven Blood Performed By Performed By Kasule The Dirty Cuts “Above The Parapet” “Hunted High & Low” “All The Options Written By Written By Have Changed” Louise Quinn David Wason Written By Performed By Performed By Peter Kelly A Band Called Quinn David Wason & Nigel Dunn Performed By Beerjacket “The Glimmer Song” “You’ve Got Troubles” “Ship” Written By Written By Written By Louise Quinn Gavin Wallace Peter Kelly Performed By Performed By Performed By A Band Called Quinn The Scuffers Beerjacket “Night Shift” “Einstein & The Taxi Driver” “I Can’t Relax” Written By Written By Written By Matthew Aldworth Andy Lucas Allan Sieczkowski & Andrew Gardiner Performed By Performed By Performed By Andy Lucas Allan Sieczkowski Den Haan & Jamie Duffin & Jamie Duffin “Angel” “Can You Swim?” “Vantage Point” Written By Written By Written By Stephen Wright Francis Lopez Louise Quinn & Daniel Valelly Performed By Performed By Performed By Stephen Wright San Fran & The Siscos A Band Called Quinn (Moonglass Music) “Fast Romance” “I Feel Alone” Written By Written ByNigel Dunn & Stephen Wright Gordon Dougall (Moonglass Music) Performed By Performed By Maggie ReillyNigel Dunn & Stephen Wright & The Superheroes (Moonglass Music) “Sad Circus” “Chasing Rainbows” Written By Written By Peter Kelly Esther O’Connor Performed By Performed By Beerjacket Esther O’ConnorFast Romance 13 Press Kit

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AppendicesFrequently Asked QuestionsHave any of the cast or crew ever been to a speed date?James McCreadie one of our writers, who incidentally also plays Carlo, did attend a speed date forresearch purposes.Are any of the situations based on real life?Well there’s nothing stranger than real life. I’ve known similar things to happen to people but I have tosay that Fast Romance is pretty unique.Did the Scottish weather ever prove a problem when filming?We actually had more trouble with sunlight than with bad weather. Within no time at all in Scotland itcan change from being grey and rainy to bright and sunny, and when you are shooting a scene whichis supposed to take place over a minute or so this can lead to continuity trouble in the edit. The bigproductions throw up large screens to filter direct sunlight that’s causing them trouble, but everythingwe shot with had to both be able to fit in my car so screens just weren’t an option. We also couldn’tafford these screens of course.They say never work with children and animals. Fast Romance has both, so how did it workout for you?We had a great wee actress, Samantha Mollins playing Heather, who only appears in a couple ofscenes, but I believe really makes an impact and she was great fun. Despite the odd bout of shyness,she brightens up the screen and played the part very well. The dogs however were another matter.We had the most badly behaved poodles in the world, which despite being a nightmare to control,were absolutely hilarious at the same time. We actually have four poodles in the film, two wonderfullybadly behaved ones (Nikki and Amber) and two well behaved body doubles (Georgia and Lily). Nikkiand Amber were kind of like Jedward, and their owner Isobel incidentally also appears in the film nextto Barbara Rafferty in one of my favourite moments. We had a couple of cats which were strangelywell behaved and reliable, and that’s perhaps the more remarkable Fast Romance animal fact.What was the biggest challenge in shooting on a microbudget?Cash flow. We wouldn’t plan to do anything in great detail till we knew we had the money actuallyin the bank to pay wages. Investment just doesn’t exist until its in your bank account, and we hadperhaps £15,000 of promised investment from varied sources never actually turn up. With no fundingwe were entirely investment led, so it was no small problem when a potential investor let us down.Were there any body doubles used for the nude scenes?No. The actors also did all their own stunts!Where did the idea come from?I had been working with Scottish Youth Theatre directing devised theatre shows which were similarin structure to Fast Romance and always very well received, and as I am a fight director by trade Iwanted to get away from the violence led stuff that I regularly work on in tv and film. A feature lengthromantic comedy seemed the best way forward. Given the way things were going in the world Iwanted to produce something uplifting, so I workshopped an idea based on the theme “All AboutLove” with some actor friends to see if it was viable and I was happy with the results. Of course thatwas in January 2006 and I didn’t meet the writers James McCreadie and Debbie May till October2008, at which point we moved everything forward to production with the shooting script completingin May 2009. It’s very hard to turn an idea into a movie as there’s no government support networkfor film makers, and no government funding for equipment, development or production for new filmmakers, so we’re all happy to see Fast Romance finally hit the big screen, despite the odds.Is it suitable for a young audience?At the time of writing we have not been certified, but we expect it to be released as a 12a in the UK. Fast Romance 17 Press Kit

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It’s not the most romantic city in the world, so why did you set it in Glasgow?The obvious answer to that is that it was cost effective to set it in the city in which most of thecast and crew are based, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Glasgow is a terrific, cosmopolitanEuropean city with a vibrant culture and is a tremendous backdrop for the stories that we wantedto tell. One of the main themes of the film is that love could be just around the corner and you don’tneed to go to Rome or Paris to find it.How did people react to the idea of Glasgow based romantic comedy?Across the board the idea was supported. It is exactly what Scotland needs at this time. We havesome big horror and sci-fi fans in the company who are itching to make something in that vein, butwe all recognised that a romcom was the right thing for the moment. It was the right film to make asa first feature. It brightens up the world.Scotland has a reputation for making gritty, dark films. Why did you choose to make aromantic comedy?We have a reputation now for making those sort of films but that wasn’t always the case. If we lookback to what I regard as a golden age of Scottish filmmaking we see films such as That SinkingFeeling, Gregory’s Girl, Restless Natives and Local Hero. You have to look back on these filmswith awe. They are incredible examples of filmmaking and to me they are as enjoyable now asthey were then. I work very often on the gritty modernist Scottish stuff and I wanted a change. Ifelt that Scotland was due a new romantic comedy, and Fast Romance is my attempt to refresh agenre, which we used to do so well. Watch out for guest appearances by key actors from the filmsmentioned above!What was the budget for the film?We spent about £41,000 in front of camera with about another £17, 000 spent on legal fees,insurance, post production and publicity so far.What was the funniest thing that happened on set?We had daily hilarity on set. A lot of friends were brought together on the film and despite the tightschedules and difficult conditions sometimes imposed by low budget filmmaking we had some goodtimes. If you want a laugh on a film set cast Derek Munn and William Ruane in scenes together. BarrieHunter and Vince Friell are also mischievous. I have to say though that as Barbara Rafferty wasmoved about on a dolly system for her mysterious appearances it was very very funny stuff to shoot.What was the worst day on set?We had a day of bad luck out in Cumbernauld where I’d chosen to shoot scenes on a bridge locationthat is heavily featured in Gregory’s Girl. It was not in our usual circle of locations being just a bitfurther out of Glasgow. A combination of problems from late cast and crew, a too distant unit base,bad weather and it being a day where our first AD couldn’t make it, meant we didn’t complete andhad to return at a later date.Was there ever a point where you thought Fast Romance wasn’t going to happen?Before I met James McCreadie and Debbie May, who eventually scripted the film I had a terribletime trying to get it up and running. Once we had a script however it became full steam ahead.Fast Romance was driven by good will, and the faith of our investors, our cast and our crew whocommitted their time, energy and money. I have been absolutely committed to insuring its success.Did the people of Glasgow help in any way?The film literally couldn’t be made without the support of the people and businesses of Glasgow. Wehad an army of keen supporting artistes who give some outstanding performances here and there;keep an eye out in the office scenes as they are terrific. I’ll single out Richard Devine who playsone of the motorbike cops as he deserves a special mention, for an unforgettable “glower”. Thebusinesses of Glasgow were immensely supportive. Our Catalano’s café scenes were shot in LightBite on the Southside of the city who gave us access for 4 days, and the larger businesses such asSnoZone! Couldn’t have been more helpful. Many of our investors were small business owners whocommitted cash to a project they wanted to support. Fast Romance 18 Press Kit

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How much funding did you receive?I’d love to say that the funding bodies were falling over themselves to give us money but it wouldbe a lie. This project didn’t interest them. We had small amounts of support here and therewhich were hugely welcomed, and as the film has completed I can say that there is finally someinterest developing.What was the reaction of funding bodies to the film?Interest from funding bodies tends to come from supportive individuals within those organisations butnot from a general remit to support projects such as this. You’d really have to ask the organisationsthemselves what their opinions were, it’s not for me to say.It was brave decision to cast so many newcomers in lead roles? Was this a consciousdecision or budget related?It was a conscious decision, and budget related. I could have offered a role to Harrison Ford but Ireally don’t think it would have interested him. There are millions of great actors out there. It would beamazing for sales reasons to have a high profile actor but its not necessary to tell a good story, whichthis is. The less well-known actors are still great actors, and they are supported by a truly diamondcast of Scotland’s better known talent.How have the cast and crew reacted to the film?The reactions have ranged from joy to disbelief that it had turned out so well with a budget of solittle. All the good emotional, confident and honest responses that a director could wish for. No oneavoiding me at the cast and crew screening is a good sign!How long did it take to film?We shot it during the summer of 2009 on weekends and some evenings. This allowed for cast andcrew to maintain their day jobs. It’s the nature of low budget stuff that this happens. We shot twopick up days in November, then had to wait till we had leaves on the trees again in March 2010 tocomplete a few more pickups.Did you shoot guerrilla style?No, we shot conventionally with one camera set ups, with locked locations, proper call sheets andpermissions. Guerrilla style on a project of this size would have been asking for trouble. It’s a stylewhich camera wise we mimic on occasion but don’t embrace as filmmakers.Did the length of the shoot pose problems with continuity etc?Oh absolutely – haircuts, changing seasons etc all an absolute nightmare. But what can you do?Keep going! Fast Romance 19 Press Kit